I have done the calculations and it appears Hilton points are worth like .8 cents for points where if you use SPG points and cash they are rougly 3-4 cents per point. Am I wrong in my calculations? If not, any reason why I should continue to spend on my Hilton card vs my SPG?

Hilton points are worth less, but they're definitely easier to earn at a much faster rate than SPG points.

ehh might go for hilton when getting 6x+, besides that, i never use it

To me, spg points are more valuable.

Starwood point are not only more valuable they are much more flexible. Basically transfer them to any airline and u get a 25 percent bonus if you transfer 20 k

Thanks for replies. Just making sure math was right. Looks like Hilton will be sock drawered

The redemption levels are so much LOWER with SPG than either Hilton or Marriott!

That is relative. In absolute numbers it is much lower but earning SPG points is much more difficult as well.

At the high end SPG is much higher.(category 7 which takes 30 to 35K points)
35k points on spg is over 100k in Hilton points. Hilton does not even anything in that range.

It all depends on what you are looking for and how you are earning your miles. For transferring to airlines, SPG is the only way to go. However, if you earn most of your miles from churning or CC spend, then HHonors may be the way to go. You can churn a Citi HHonors card a couple of times a year (plus use the 2 browser trick), which will give you about 200K per year plus spend. If you have the AMEX HHonors card, you can earn up to 6 points per dollar in various categories.

For SPG, you need to wait at least 12 months from the date of closure to get a new card. Plus the sign up bonus is only 25-30K at best.

So even tho the redemption levels are much higher, the earning RATE and potential is also much higher. With HHonors you also have the VIP and AXON redemptions that drop the "top" tier (excluding WA) to about 36K per night which is about double the SPG redemption for a similar type room.

Again, they both have their place and it all depends on your goals.

There are WA redemptions that run on the order of 70K per night. Again, you can not compare absolute numbers because of the different earning rates.

Right on.

It is so much easier to earn HHonor pts from sign up bonus as well as spend in categories bonus including actual spending in Hilton properties - the high amount for redemption becomes non-issue.

SPG cat 6 is 12K pts, but it is in general lower than the class of Conrad brand of Hilton family. Conrad is 50K HHonor pts which drops to 36K each for 4 nights when redeeming AXON.

Even if you earn pts from spending, you earn 1 SPG pt per $1 spend regardless where, including staying at SPG properties. But you earn 6 to 10 HHonor staying at Hilton properties depends on your card, and you also earn 6 HHonor pts at grocery stores / drug stores / gas station if you hold AMEX HHonor (incl the no-fee version). So the earning ratio between HHonor and SPG is better than the ratio in redemption. 6:1 earning rate but only 4:1 spend rate, so you are 30% ahead with your HHonor pts account balance.

And you have much more opportunities to earn good sign up bonuses with HHonor card than with SPG card. It is very doable to earn 300K HHonor pts a year just from sign up bonuses versus at best 50K SPG pts - again a 6:1 ratio in earning.

I agree with what Happy says, for 3 card signups in my last churn, I'll get 205K Hilton points for $5K spend (likely 225K+ when all is said and done). For the same with SPG, I'd get 35K SPG points when they have the 30K bonus.

And I still have access to about 3 or 4 more cards for HHonors points.

Happy's analysis is spot on. I value SPG points higher, but you do have to take into consideration that the earn rate is much easier on HH.

I recently did an AXON award, and I thought that was a really good value too.

As is being hinted here, now that you know your own personal valuations, you can value EACH decision using them.

Say you have $1000 to spend. It can earn you either 3000 Hilton points or 1000 SPG points.

HH: 3000 x .008 = $24
SPG = 1000 x .03 = $30

Therefore you would use the SPG card.

You can also evaluate signup bonuses the same way. Let's say you have "unlimited" spending available and can use an inquiry for either 30k SPG points or 100k Hilton points (reasonable numbers, historically).

HH: 100000 x .008 = $800
SPG: 30000 x .03 = $900

Therefore you go with the SPG signup offer.

Ideally, you'd just go ahead and do both. But if you need to make a choice, such as "which credit card to use for this everyday spend", just do the calculation each time.

(It does NOT matter if there are better redemptions at certain properties or tier levels if YOU don't want to stay there.)

Unless you can use SPG's Cash and Point all the time, it is not easy to get the "perceived" 0.03 valuation of SPG pts.

My experience has been, I would only achieve such valuation when using Cash and Points in cities that are expensive - unfortunately in last couple years, Hotels in such locales hardly offer Cash and Point option any more. I have never been able to find a Cash and Point offering for properties in Hong Kong for example.

Furthermore, the ability of amassing meaningful amount of points in relative short time is a crucial factor. If you dont get the SPG biz card you would only get 35K SPG pt a year (30K bonus promotion + 5K spend to reach that.) versus a very conservative 300K for HHonor pts for 4.5K spend - all on personal citicards (ignore the BofA, HofA, Virgin as they dont waive annual fee). You get 3 Cat 6 nights with SPG, but you get 8 Cat 7 nights with HHonor Cat 7 with AXON. Or 6 Cat 7 by single night redemption.

I dont care how the theoretical valuation is done. What matter to me is how many free nights at top hotels I could get, with the same time span and same amount of spend (actually less is needed with HHonor cards).

BTW, the Conrad Hong Kong a Cat 7, is far better than the W Hong Kong a Cat 6 of SPG.